From the Director's Chair

Want to guess why my hand hurts?  Because I just completed one of my most favorite responsibilities, which was to sign letters of invitation to 40 McNair Scholar finalists and 50 Carolina Scholar finalists, our most prestigious scholarship programs.  We've now officially entered our scholarship awarding cycle, however most of our scholarship offers will go out around the first week of March.  But, at least 90 students will be getting very good news in the next few days.  If any of these 90 do not elect to interview for the McNair or Carolina Scholars awards, we may invite additional students to interview.  I remember one student from last year, I'll call him "Lucky", that was not one of our initial 40 McNair finalists, but someone dropped out at the last minute and he was next on the list, able to come down for the competition, received the McNair Finalist award, and is now here at USC--and we're thrilled to have him.   About 1600 students applied for the Carolina and McNair scholarships, and nearly all are exceptional students we'd love to have at USC.  On second thought, I should not call the student "Lucky", because we are the luckly ones that he chose USC over the many other good options I'm sure he considered.  But, USC is a great place to be, and more and more people like "Lucky" are finding this out and making the choice to attend Carolina.

Today I took a tour of our new Student Success Center. This center is charged with helping students succeed in the classroom through several services, including Supplemental Instruction, which is a program that helps students in classes in which some students have previously struggled.  The way it works is we hire SI leaders, which are students that have successfully completed a course in the past with a high grade, to sit though the class again and facilitate out-of-class sessions to supplement the professor's instruction.  This is a free service to all freshmen.

The Success Center also offers individual and small group tutoring, also free of charge, to help students that need extra help.  Some new initiatives in the center include the STAR (Students Tackling Academic Recover), which helps students that have earned low GPAs develop a plan for recovery; Success Initiatives for Special Student Populations, which helps students find mentors; and  something I am very excited about called Early Intervention Initiatives, which are programs to help identify and correct problems before they become problems.  Mom and Dad, if you are reading this, you'll be happy to know that through this initiative, we encourage class attendance, and actually contact students that have started skipping classes to help get them back on track.  I am about to tell you the two most important secrets for academic success in college.  Are you ready?....Write this down......Okay, here they are.  Secret #1 is GO TO CLASS.  Secret #2 is STUDY.  Please feel free to share this with anyone you wish, I don't have a copyright or anything like that.  These tricks really work, you'd be surprised.  Our data shows that students that perform poorly in class usually don't go to class.  A coincidence?  I think not.

The point here is that USC cares about the academic success of our students, and new centers and initiatives like this one show our commitment to student achievement.  You can learn more about the Student Success Center at www.sc.edu/academicsuccess.

Well, enough ramblings for now....please come back soon for more updates. 

Posted by Scott at 03:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is a lot going on in the admissions office right now.  We are processing admissions applications as quickly as we can.  We are in the final screening phase for admission to the South Carolina Honors College and for our most competitive scholarships. (Carolina Scholar Finalists and McNair Scholar Finalists must be named by February 1.)  We're constantly evaluating the applicant pool so we can determine how many scholarships we can offer, to whom, and what the value will be.  Lot's of decisions will be made in the next few weeks, and the gravity of these decisions, the impact they will have on students and their families, weighs heavily on me sometimes.  But, as I tell my kids, yes, we're almost there.

So what is better, Thick or Thin?  Everyone looks for the "thick envelope" in the mail, and it is true that our initial acceptance packet is fairly hefty.  But, don't overlook the thin letters!  Sometimes they contain very good news, such as a scholarship offer, admission to the Honors College, or an invitation to join a special program like Capstone Scholars, so read the thin stuff too.

Is there something you want to know, that you think others might like to know as well?  Don't be shy, ask away. I'm happy to post answers to questions.  It's much better than you wondering, worrying, or getting inaccurate information from someone else.   So, ask me anything....anyone?

Posted by Scott at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Most people are aware that USC has a December 1 priority date if you applying for freshmen admission for Fall semester.  What some people don't realize is that you have until February 1 to submit all transcripts, official test scores, and supporting credentials to the admissions office.  February 1 is almost here!

But, if you are a student that has just decided that you are interested in USC and you have not yet applied, it is not too late.  Even though our December 1 priority date has come and gone, we are still accepting applications and we will still consider students who apply late.  Those who did meet the December 1 date will receive a higher priority and will be processed first, however.

I have had a few questions from students about when they will hear back from the admissions office.  We operate under a "rolling admissions" system, which means that in general we process applications  in the order that we receive them AND when they become complete.  It is possible for two students with similar academic records to have applied on the same day but for only one to have heard a decision.  That is usually because we did not receive a transcript or SAT or ACT scores on the same date for one or the other.  It is not usually because there is a problem, only that we were able to act on one earlier because the file was complete earlier. 

So far, USC has processed about one third of the applications we have received, so we still have a long way to go and most of our applicants have not yet received a decision.  We are admitting students every day, and our goal is to have all decisions made and letters in the mail the first week in March.  So, if you have not yet heard a decision, please don't fret or get discouraged.  Just a few more weeks to go....

Posted by Scott at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)